No More Shit!
Noreen called yesterday to say her obituary
of Chris Bearchell will be in today's Globe and Mail. She mentioned that she had
tried to work CB's famous three words into the lead but couldn't get it past her
editors.
I laughed and told her about hearing the phrase
"smarter than shit" earlier in the day on CBC
Radio (The Current, part 3.) Something about the environmentally
correct rationing of toilet paper. Chris would have loved it. After Noreen said
goodbye I sat back and thought about that night in 1981 when CB used those three
words and others to rally Toronto's embattled gay
community.
On February 5th of that year the Toronto police conducted the largest mass arrests in Canada since the war measures act was imposed during the FLQ crisis. Over 300 men were arrested in Operation Soap, simultaneous raids of the city's gay bath houses. These weren't the first raids, just the biggest. This was before Canada had a Charter of Rights and Freedoms and homosexuality was still illegal. The men were charged under the bawdy house laws, accused of being "found ins" and "keepers."
I happened to be in Toronto that week visiting friends. Late Thursday evening we heard about the arrests and went to the police stations where the men were being processed and released. We stayed at it until 4 or 5 in the morning, getting their stories and offering a phone number for them to call. I'll never forget meeting a young man, still a teenager, whose father, a police officer, had just discovered his son was gay and a found in.
The next day activists met in the offices of The Body Politic, the national gay paper, and hurriedly planned a protest. Leaflets went out asking gays and their supporters to demonstrate at the corner of Wellesley and Yonge at midnight.
Chris and I were on the executive of the provincial gay rights coalition, CGRO. She was one of the speakers that night and I "chaired" the event. We had hoped several hundred would show up. Usually gay demos back then were considered successful if there were a few dozen participants. We were overwhelmed when the crowd turned out to be over three thousand.
Just before the speeches began I explained to a gaggle of reporters, TV crews and undercover cops the parade route we intended to take afterwards, north to Bloor and then over to the central police headquarters.
There were four speakers on the agenda, including Peter Maloney, who had recently coordinated CGRO's human rights campaign, and the Reverend Brent Hawkes, pastor of the Metropolitan Community Church. The first speaker was one of the found ins. The crowd responded enthusiastically to everything they had to say. But it was Chris whose held them spell bound. She demanded they express their anger by attacking homophobia and gay self oppression. No longer she exhorted, will we allow society to call us criminals and perverts.
When she gave her scatological rallying cry the demonstrators roared with approval and delight. And a large number of them started marching on their own, south, towards the gay bar district.
Rather than split our forces we made a last minute course correction. I announced we were all going to march south, towards the police precinct house where most of the men had been taken, 52 division. The press and the cops were furious and rushed to reposition their cameras and barricades.
There was an intense and dramatic standoff at the police station, where rows of tightly packed demonstrators stood toe to toe with a line of cops. I have to admit the cops were well disciplined, staring stonily at us as we chanted "Fuck You 52." As I watched this waiting for the sound truck to arrive I was sure there would be violence.
But when I introduced activist Tom Warner, who would one day become Ontario's first openly gay human rights commissioner, the protesters turned their backs on the cops and returned to the street to listen. Tom made some inspired impromptu remarks to the effect that it was the politicians that were most responsible for the attacks on our community. Then he announced a new destination for the march: Queen's Park, the Ontario legislature.
Tom and Chris and I had decided we didn't want a blood bath. It was 2 am and the crowd was getting smaller. Our plan at this point was to have one last speech on the steps of the legislature and then send the marchers back to Yonge where they could safely disperse. We were getting reports that homophobes had appeared, harassing stragglers on the outskirts of the crowd.
A police contingent got to the doors of the legislature just before we did. As they had anticipated many of the demonstrators wanted to storm the building. Chris got caught in the crush and injured her leg. She ended up being taken to a nearby hospital.
Michael drove the sound truck across the lawn and tossed me the microphone. I asked our people to fall back, told them we wanted to return to Yonge Street. I couldn't think what more to say and gave the mike over to Tom who repeated the message and added that when we dispersed everyone should travel home in groups, avoiding the cops and the queer bashers.
Someone yanked the mike cord from the truck, killing the sound system. I told Michael to drive slowly away and yelled for everyone to follow. Some remained, battling the cops, and many of them were arrested. Most of the crowd followed the truck. By the time we got back to Yonge there were only a few hundred marchers. Most went home but there were chants of no more shit heard up and down Yonge Street until just before dawn.
The next day the headlines were all about gay rage. The editorials were almost all on our side, condemning the cops for making Toronto look like a police state.
There were more demonstrations in the months to come, larger and better planned. No more shit buttons became ubiquitous and can still be seen today at pride marches in Toronto and elsewhere. Chris gave many more great speeches, wrote, edited, lectured and mentored, inspiring several generations of gay activists. She and Tom led the effort that finally amended the province's human rights code to include sexual orientation. And I was privileged, along with many others, to share some of the work with them.
Noreen's obit on Chris is here. She gets the time line wrong in a couple of places but her appreciation of Chris is right on.
Andrew has continued to update the Chris Bearchell Memorial Homepage here.
On February 5th of that year the Toronto police conducted the largest mass arrests in Canada since the war measures act was imposed during the FLQ crisis. Over 300 men were arrested in Operation Soap, simultaneous raids of the city's gay bath houses. These weren't the first raids, just the biggest. This was before Canada had a Charter of Rights and Freedoms and homosexuality was still illegal. The men were charged under the bawdy house laws, accused of being "found ins" and "keepers."
I happened to be in Toronto that week visiting friends. Late Thursday evening we heard about the arrests and went to the police stations where the men were being processed and released. We stayed at it until 4 or 5 in the morning, getting their stories and offering a phone number for them to call. I'll never forget meeting a young man, still a teenager, whose father, a police officer, had just discovered his son was gay and a found in.
The next day activists met in the offices of The Body Politic, the national gay paper, and hurriedly planned a protest. Leaflets went out asking gays and their supporters to demonstrate at the corner of Wellesley and Yonge at midnight.
Chris and I were on the executive of the provincial gay rights coalition, CGRO. She was one of the speakers that night and I "chaired" the event. We had hoped several hundred would show up. Usually gay demos back then were considered successful if there were a few dozen participants. We were overwhelmed when the crowd turned out to be over three thousand.
Just before the speeches began I explained to a gaggle of reporters, TV crews and undercover cops the parade route we intended to take afterwards, north to Bloor and then over to the central police headquarters.
There were four speakers on the agenda, including Peter Maloney, who had recently coordinated CGRO's human rights campaign, and the Reverend Brent Hawkes, pastor of the Metropolitan Community Church. The first speaker was one of the found ins. The crowd responded enthusiastically to everything they had to say. But it was Chris whose held them spell bound. She demanded they express their anger by attacking homophobia and gay self oppression. No longer she exhorted, will we allow society to call us criminals and perverts.
When she gave her scatological rallying cry the demonstrators roared with approval and delight. And a large number of them started marching on their own, south, towards the gay bar district.
Rather than split our forces we made a last minute course correction. I announced we were all going to march south, towards the police precinct house where most of the men had been taken, 52 division. The press and the cops were furious and rushed to reposition their cameras and barricades.
There was an intense and dramatic standoff at the police station, where rows of tightly packed demonstrators stood toe to toe with a line of cops. I have to admit the cops were well disciplined, staring stonily at us as we chanted "Fuck You 52." As I watched this waiting for the sound truck to arrive I was sure there would be violence.
But when I introduced activist Tom Warner, who would one day become Ontario's first openly gay human rights commissioner, the protesters turned their backs on the cops and returned to the street to listen. Tom made some inspired impromptu remarks to the effect that it was the politicians that were most responsible for the attacks on our community. Then he announced a new destination for the march: Queen's Park, the Ontario legislature.
Tom and Chris and I had decided we didn't want a blood bath. It was 2 am and the crowd was getting smaller. Our plan at this point was to have one last speech on the steps of the legislature and then send the marchers back to Yonge where they could safely disperse. We were getting reports that homophobes had appeared, harassing stragglers on the outskirts of the crowd.
A police contingent got to the doors of the legislature just before we did. As they had anticipated many of the demonstrators wanted to storm the building. Chris got caught in the crush and injured her leg. She ended up being taken to a nearby hospital.
Michael drove the sound truck across the lawn and tossed me the microphone. I asked our people to fall back, told them we wanted to return to Yonge Street. I couldn't think what more to say and gave the mike over to Tom who repeated the message and added that when we dispersed everyone should travel home in groups, avoiding the cops and the queer bashers.
Someone yanked the mike cord from the truck, killing the sound system. I told Michael to drive slowly away and yelled for everyone to follow. Some remained, battling the cops, and many of them were arrested. Most of the crowd followed the truck. By the time we got back to Yonge there were only a few hundred marchers. Most went home but there were chants of no more shit heard up and down Yonge Street until just before dawn.
The next day the headlines were all about gay rage. The editorials were almost all on our side, condemning the cops for making Toronto look like a police state.
There were more demonstrations in the months to come, larger and better planned. No more shit buttons became ubiquitous and can still be seen today at pride marches in Toronto and elsewhere. Chris gave many more great speeches, wrote, edited, lectured and mentored, inspiring several generations of gay activists. She and Tom led the effort that finally amended the province's human rights code to include sexual orientation. And I was privileged, along with many others, to share some of the work with them.
Noreen's obit on Chris is here. She gets the time line wrong in a couple of places but her appreciation of Chris is right on.
Andrew has continued to update the Chris Bearchell Memorial Homepage here.
Posted: Fri - April 27, 2007 at 02:00 PM
Quick Links
A blog by Jim Monk
XML/RSS Feed
Archives
Calendar
| Sun | Mon | Tue | Wed | Thu | Fri | Sat |
Categories
My Favourite Blogs
My Favourite Sites
Subscriptions
Windsor - Essex Blogs
Statistics
Total entries in this blog:
Total entries in this category:
Published On: Sep 12, 2007 03:13 PM
Total entries in this category:
Published On: Sep 12, 2007 03:13 PM